He accuses the Sheriff's Office of negligence in dealing with an incident at a Lutz youth detention center.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published May 21, 2003
DADE CITY - A former therapist at a Lutz youth detention center is suing the Pasco County Sheriff's Office this week, claiming a shoddy investigation landed him in jail two years ago when he was accused of beating up a child in his custody.
According to the lawsuit filed in Circuit Court on Monday, former Sunshine Youth Services recreational therapist Bryan Keith Landers, 41, accused the Sheriff's Office of negligence in his March 8, 2001, arrest at the center.
According to Landers' lawsuit, filed by attorneys Larry Hersch of Dade City and Stephen Stuart of Tampa, Landers broke up a fight involving two teenagers at Sunshine Youth Services on March 8. After a 15-year-old boy was put in a "timeout room," the youth complained he had been beaten.
Sheriff's Office Cpl. Vincent Snider investigated and wrote in his report the teen's shirt was torn; he had a bump on his head. He also reported that Landers admitted grabbing the teen and pushing him into the room.
Landers was charged with child abuse, a felony that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, and he was taken to the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes, where he said he was fingerprinted, photographed and sprayed for lice.
In his lawsuit, Landers disputes Snider's account.
He contends Snider took the word of three other teens at the center and didn't investigate their claims that they saw what happened. He said if Snider had looked at the timeout room, he would have known the teens were lying because they couldn't have seen inside.
The lawsuit calls Snider's investigation "superficial and inadequate" and contends the teen had an extensive history of hurting himself, including a pattern of banging his head on the wall and tying things around his neck.
Snider later admitted he had not examined the timeout room and agreed the teens could not have seen the incident. A Sheriff's Office internal investigation ended with a letter placed in Snider's file reprimanding him for not following investigative procedures.
A week after Landers' arrest, prosecutors investigated, and two months later the State Attorney's Office decided not to pursue charges.
A month after the State Attorney's Office decision, a Department of Juvenile Justice report concluded Landers used excessive force and an unauthorized technique: grabbing the boy by the shirt and ripping it.
Sunshine executive director Tara Kozlowski said Tuesday her center forwarded the State Attorney's Office determination not to prosecute to the Juvenile Justice Department and never heard back from the agency.
Landers, placed on leave after the allegations, was reinstated to his job, Kozlowski said in 2001. She said Tuesday he no longer works at the center.
Sunshine Youth Services, which operates as Gulf and Lake Academy, is a secure facility that opened in June 2000. It houses 13- to 18-year-old misdemeanor offenders with mental disabilities.
No working telephone number for Landers could be located Tuesday, and his attorneys did not return telephone calls. Pasco County Sheriff's Office spokesman Kevin Doll said his agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Landers' lawsuit does not specify the damages he is seeking, save that the amount will be more than the $15,000 threshold required for Circuit Court. He claims that he lost more than two months' wages, that his reputation was damaged by articles on the incident in the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune, and that he was labeled a child abuser.
The Sheriff's Office has been sued for false arrest before. In a high-profile case, Dale Morris sued the agency in 1998 over his 1997 arrest and subsequent four-month stay in jail after he was accused in the murder of 9-year-old Sharra Ferger.
Morris was cleared. He settled his lawsuit this year for $25,000.
